What is the song ‘Murka’, the main Soviet bandit hit, about?

It’s a song about a young woman named Marusya Klimova, who turned out to be an undercover ‘MUR’ (‘Moscow Criminal Investigations Department’) agent infiltrating a gang of thieves. It’s based on real events.

Maria Nikiforovna Klimova was born in 1897 in Veliky Ustyug. According to some information, she worked as a doctor in MUR, according to other information – as a ‘Cheka’ (USSR’s first secret police) operative agent.

A monument to Murka in Veliky Ustyug.

Victor Chuchin's personal archive

In the 1920s, a gang of criminals operated in the Black Sea city of Odessa, headed by a thief with the nickname ‘Diamond’. No one among the Moscow operatives who worked on the plan to liquidate the gang knew its leader by face. To find ‘Diamond’, an operative group was sent from the capital to Odessa in 1921 under the guise of “guest performers” – traveling thieves. Marusya Klimova was among them.

The young woman was supposed to catch the eye of ‘Diamond’, posing as an associate of revolutionary Nestor Makhno, who had disagreements with the Bolsheviks. He was respected in these parts and the “guest performers” were welcomed into the criminal world of Odessa. But, when arrests and police raids began, the gang of thieves began to harbor some suspicions.

Klimova's ID.

Public domain

This story concluded with a shootout in a restaurant. ‘Diamond’ and his gang saw Marusya with another thief sitting at a table and became jealous. ‘Murka’ was shot three times by him: in the chest, in the arm and in the head. Later, 20 bodies were found at the place of the shootout, including the body of ‘Diamond’, but she was not among them.

Not much is known about the fate of Klimova: In 1952, she was discharged from law enforcement as a reservist police captain. Since such a rank appeared in the police only in the 1930s, most likely, she continued to work at ‘MUR’ until she retired.

The song about ‘Murka’ was written at the beginning of the 1920s by Odessa publicist Yakov Yadov (Davydov). The lyrics and the tune were a bit different, but then it spread “among the people” and spawned a multitude of versions.

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